🚲 Mobility

EASY Card, contactless bank cards and a daily fare cap

Miami-Dade County has run the Cubic-built EASY Card on Metrobus and Metrorail since 2009. In August 2019 the county opened the gates to bank cards: a contactless Visa, Mastercard or Amex, or a phone, taps straight in, and the day's charges stop at $5.65 — the price of a 1-Day Pass. The cap is daily only; 7-day and monthly passes are still sold, and the county's discount programmes are issued as EASY Cards, not as taps. Metromover carries no fare at all.

Live 📅 since 2009 ✔ Editor-reviewed

✔ Reviewed by the 1001 Smart Cities editorial desk · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-26

🚲 Mobility Smart ticketing Public transport

📊 Impact

A single ride costs $2.25 and a contactless day stops at $5.65, so a third tap is free. There is no weekly or monthly cap: the 7-Day Pass ($29.25) and 1-Month Pass ($112.50) remain on sale. Fares have not risen since 2013 — a proposed increase to $2.75 was dropped when commissioners passed the FY2025-26 budget in September 2025.

🎓 Lesson

Adding a payment channel is not the same as retiring one. The mobile passes sold in the county's own GO app cannot open a Metrorail faregate — the FAQ tells riders to tap a physical EASY Card or a bank card instead — so three fare media coexist, and the cap only follows the bank card.

Evidence🏛️ Official

Scale🗺️ Regional

FundingMiami-Dade County (DTPW operating and capital budget)

Sources

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — Transit Fares and Parking Fees (official)Current schedule: 'Metrobus Full Fare: $2.25' / 'Discounted Fare: $1.10'; '1-Day Pass Full Fare: $5.65'; '7-Day Pass Full Fare: $29.25'; '1-Month Pass Full Fare: $112.50'; 'Metromover FREE'; 'Golden Passport or Patriot Passport FREE'.

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — Contactless Payment (official)Riders 'pay directly at Metrorail fare gates and Metrobus fare boxes' with 'Visa, Mastercard, and American Express contactless-enabled bankcards' or Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay. Also: 'EASY Cards, EASY Tickets, and mobile passes through the GO Miami-Dade Transit app are also accepted.'

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — Contactless Payment FAQs (official)'Fare capping guarantees a maximum of $5.65 per day for unlimited rides on Metrorail and Metrobus.' The page states no weekly or monthly cap.

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — GO Miami-Dade App FAQs (official)'GO Miami-Dade combines Miami-Dade Transit's existing applications -- Tracker, Transit Watch, and EASY Pay -- all into one easy-to-use mobile app.' 'At the moment, riders can purchase a 1-Day or 7-Day mobile pass.' At the gate: 'you will need to tap your physical EASY Card onto the faregate or fareboxes'; 'contactless payment has been enabled systemwide'.

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — EASY Card (official)Card costs $2, stores cash value from $10 or 1-Day/7-Day/1-Month passes, 'has a 20-year life-span'; cards inactive 12 months are disabled.

↗ Miami-Dade DTPW — Commuter-Reduced Fare for low-income residents (official)Half-price rides are issued on a 'Commuter-Reduced Fare EASY Card'; applications are taken at the 'Golden Passport Office located on the 1st floor of Government Center' — the discount lives on the county card, not on a bank tap.

↗ Cubic Transportation Systems — open payment launch with Miami-Dade DTPW (vendor)Cubic launched open payment on the EASY Card system in August 2019; 'Miami-Dade DTPW awarded Cubic a contract in 2016 to modernize the EASY Card revenue management system as well as provide 10 years of back office cloud computing and support services.'

↗ Coral Gables Community News — contactless added to the Metrobus fleet (2020-01-05)Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez: 'We first launched contactless payment for Metrorail riders in August.' Article dates the Metrobus extension and states the cap 'guarantees a maximum cost of $5.65 per day, which is equivalent to a 1-Day Pass'.

↗ WLRN — riders' group warns on proposed fare increases (2025-08-29)Press: the mayor's FY2025-26 budget proposed raising Metrobus and Metrorail fares from $2.25 to $2.75, the first increase since 2013.

↗ Local 10 News — 'Transit fares, property taxes stay flat as commissioners pass Miami-Dade budget' (2025-09-19)Press: commissioners cancelled the proposed fare increase when adopting the $12.9bn budget; the $2.25 fare stands.

↗ Wikipedia — Easy CardCorroborates the launch date 'October 1, 2009', Cubic as supplier, expansion to Tri-Rail in 2011, and Metrobus contactless 'as of February 2020'. Weakest source in this list; used only for the 2009 date, which no reachable operator page states.

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “EASY Card, contactless bank cards and a daily fare cap” — Miami, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/miami-easy-card/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

🔗 Related projects

🇺🇸 TAP: One Fare Card for Los Angeles County, and the Caps That Came With It · Los Angeles LA abolished passes in 2023 so the cap sets the price; Miami caps a day at $5.65 and still sells 7-day and monthly passes. 🇺🇸 Ventra: Chicago's Open-Loop Fare System and Its Broken Launch · Chicago Chicago's gates took bank cards in 2013, Miami's in 2019 — but Miami attached a daily cap to the tap, and Ventra caps nothing. 🇺🇸 CharlieCard and the AFC 2.0 Fare System Replacement · Boston Both put the low-income discount on the agency card — and neither caps it: Boston sells a monthly LinkPass, Miami caps only bank taps. 🇺🇸 Metromover: fare-free driverless people mover in downtown Miami · Miami The third fare medium is no fare: Metromover has carried riders free since 2002, while Metrobus and Metrorail cap a day at $5.65.

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EASY Card, contactless bank cards and a daily fare cap

📊 Impact

🎓 Lesson

Sources

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